I want to start by saying that Israel does not need excuses to attack and kill Palestinians. However, they do it with international approval when they have this excuse.In fact, Israel is dictating the method of resistance that makes it easier for the Israeli army to counter.
The Palestinian resistance launches Qassams to retaliate the killing of Palestinian civilians, destruction of homes and infrastructure, thinking that they can make the Israeli population angry at its government and force it to accept Palestinian demand.
Simply, they are mistaken, because the Israeli officials whine because of the Qassams, but in fact, they are happy for these Qassams and would love to have more of them.The so called "Qassam Rockets" do not cause a worth mentioning damage to property, they do not physically harm Israelis, except on a very minor level. However, Israel managed to make a life-threatening monster out of these home-made metal pipes filled with some gun powder, that fall on Palestinian houses and empty areas in most of the cases.
So, it was easy to get an American Veto against the resolution to condemn the Israeli massacre in Beit Hanoun, claiming that it was an act of self-defense, while the world condemn the launching of these Qassams.
The fact that Palestinian resistance groups do not realize is that Israel does not intend to stop the launching of Qassams.
Therefore, there is nothing to make one believe that Palestinians are gaining anything good out of launching these Qassams.
Comment: Isn't it about time that everyone just accepted the FACT that Israel is behind the firing of these rockets?
Joe Quinn
Sott.netWed, 20 Dec 2006 12:00 UTC
There is a saying of sorts that "if you are going to do something, do it well", and given the serious consequences, nowhere is that more true than when you plan to engage in criminal activity.
Today in Basra, Southern Iraq, two members of the British SAS (Special Ops) were caught, 'in flagrante' as it were, dressed in full "Arab garb", driving a car full of explosives and shooting and killing two official Iraqi policemen.
Diocese is shaken as former altar boy takes legal action claiming that negligence exposed him to priest who was 'a danger to children'
The Catholic church faces fresh allegations of turning a blind eye to paedophilia after an Observer investigation revealed that one of its priests was allowed to continue working despite warnings he posed a danger to children.
The priest, Father David Crowley, went on to rape a 10-year-old altar boy, whom he continued to abuse until 1995. Now the victim has spoken publicly for the first time about his ordeal in order to expose the 'scandalous' way he says the church has behaved. He has accused the Rt Rev David Konstant, former Bishop of Leeds, of failing to stop Crowley despite having evidence that the priest was a sex risk to children. In 1997 Crowley was jailed for nine years after pleading guilty to abusing boys for more than a decade.
Article continuesKonstant was Bishop of Leeds for 19 years, chairman of the Catholic Education Service and headed the church's international affairs committee under Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster.
The Honourable Dame Elizabeth Lydia Manningham-Buller, (Dame Eliza) DCB (born 14 July, 1948) is the current director general (DG) of MI5, the British internal national security agency, appointed in October 2002.
The second daughter of a former Lord Chancellor and Attorney General, Reginald Edward Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne, Dame Eliza was educated at Northampton High School and Benenden School.
She worked as a teacher for three years at Queen's Gate in London, having read English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford from 1971 to 1974, before joining the Security Service.
Michael Evans
The TimesSun, 10 Dec 2006 12:00 UTC
THE head of MI5 has publicly backed Tony Blair's warning that the rules of how Britain combats the threat of terrorism have to change.
In a break with tradition, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, Director-General of MI5, allowed a confidential speech that she had given to Dutch intelligence officers to be published on the agency's website yesterday. She gave a warning that an erosion of civil liberties might be necessary to stop more British citizens from being killed by terrorists.
Her intervention will provide ammunition for the Prime Minister and Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, in their battle with the courts over dealing with suspected terrorists. It will also bolster the Government's struggle to introduce rules to make it easier to deport foreign preachers of hate.
WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice has rejected a bipartisan panel's recommendation that the Bush administration engageSyria and Iran in efforts to stabilize Iraq, The Washington Post reported on Friday.
The "compensation" required for any such deal might be too high, Rice told the paper in an interview.
Rice said she did not want to trade away Lebanese sovereignty to Syria or allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon as a price for peace in Iraq, the Post reported.
She also argued that neither Syria nor Iran should need incentives to help achieve stability in Iraq, the Post reported.
Moscow - A key witness in the radiation death of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko claimed the poisoning took place earlier than is widely believed, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
Andrei Lugovoi, a security agent-turned-businessman who met with Mr. Litvinenko at a London hotel on Nov. 1, the day Mr. Litvinenko suspected he was poisoned, said in an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets tabloid that he and Mr. Litvinenko were poisoned on Oct. 16.
"Who told you that the contamination took place on Nov. 1? It took place much earlier, on Oct. 16," Mr. Lugovoi was quoted as saying by the paper. Mr. Lugovoi is himself undergoing radiation checks in a Moscow clinic.
Mr. Litvinenko, 43, a former Russian agent and a Kremlin critic, died Nov. 23 of poisoning from polonium-210.
Patrick Donahue
BloombergTue, 12 Dec 2006 12:00 UTC
Four people in Germany may have ingested the radioactive substance that killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, German police said, as investigators probed the activities of one of his business associates in Hamburg.
The ex-wife and two children of Dmitry Kovtun, who is being investigated for suspected handling of polonium 210, likely had contact with the substance while Kovtun was in Hamburg in late October, police said at a briefing broadcast on the N24 television channel. A fourth person, Kovtun's ex-wife's partner, also tested positive.
APFri, 08 Dec 2006 12:00 UTC
Incoming U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told a Senate committee on Thursday that Israel has nuclear weapons, and that this partially explains Iran's motiviation to acquire nuclear weapons.
"They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons - Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf," he told the Senate committee during his confirmation hearing.
Comment: So let's deal with Israel's WMDs, because clearly the Zionists are extremist nutjobs who are threatening the stability of the entire world.
BEIJING: China's Sinopec Group is near to clinching one of its biggest overseas deals, to develop Iran's giant Yadavaran oilfield, a top Chinese industry official said yesterday.
Yadavaran, in southwest Iran, is expected to produce 300,000 bpd, about the same amount Iran now exports to China. Iran is China's third largest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia and Angola.
Comment: Isn't it about time that everyone just accepted the FACT that Israel is behind the firing of these rockets?